CHAPTER ELEVEN

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"It's getting dark, too dark to see. I feel like I'm knocking on heaven's door."

ALL THEY DID was walk. All they could do was walk. Like walking away would rid them of the memory of what they were leaving behind, like walking was a distraction, numbing their minds of the pain they felt lost in the wilderness, their family and friends gone.

Damon kept a good distance ahead of Reign, who walked at much a slower pace, not finding the energy to move her feet any faster. Her cheeks were stained with tears, each drop clearing a clean path down her bloodstained face.

The two of them walked mechanically, like they were robots programed to one job. They didn't know where they were going, and they didn't even know why they were still with each other. They hated each other to death. The only reason Reign was following him was for the hope he could lead her to Bonnie, or anyone else other than him.

The only reason Damon was allowing Reign to follow him was so that Bonnie wouldn't smack the shit out of him when he told her he left Reign behind. He didn't want to let Bonnie down, not that he would ever tell Reign that was the only reason he had allowed her to come with him. They weren't with one another for each other, but rather for themselves.

They had been walking for too long, too quietly in the same direction, away from the prison. They were far enough now that the smoke from their old home was invisible to their eyes, not that they really bothered to look back and check.

Reign felt completely and utterly lost. She had just gotten to know her father, her real father that she had been looking for all her life, only to have him taken from her once again. And her brother, her brother she so dearly loved and missed was once again gone from her life, no where to be found. All she wanted was to be with them, not Damon.

"Where are we going Damon?" Reign muttered quietly, but she knew his vampire hearing would hear her.

"To find Bonnie and the group," Damon replied grimly.

"You've said that like a million times, yet we've been out here for several hours, and it's pitch black out. You don't have a damn clue where they went, do you?" she asked.

Damon spun around abruptly, pointing an accusing finger at her face. "You know what? No, I don't know where they are, but I'm going to keep looking, and if you want to go look somewhere else, go right ahead. I sure as hell won't follow you. I'll find them myself," he snapped.

"Maybe we should go back to the prison, maybe everyone gathered there," Reign suggested.

"Like hell we should go there. There's nothing left Mulan! It's a graveyard, and for all we know everyone we know has been buried there," he yelled. Both of them were tired and annoyed, and frankly they were both afraid although neither of them would ever admit it.

"How can you say that?" Reign asked, tears once again gathering in her eyes. Reign had never felt like crying so much in her life, yet she found herself not wanting to cry in front of someone who didn't give a rat's ass about her.

"Because it's true, and you know it," Damon said. "Now, if you want to continue with me you either shut the hell up, or get out of here. I don't need you," he said, anger getting the best of him.

"I don't need you either asshole. I've survived out here by myself," she fired back.

"Good for you," Damon retorted, before turning around and waving his hand. With that the two parted ways again for a second time with Reign heading back in the direction of their old home.

The sun was just beginning to rise once she reached the prison, and to much of her surprise Damon had been right. It did look like a graveyard.

There were bodies both human and walker laying about, debris and pieces of the building laying around with small fires still blazing although most had gone down. It was like a ghost town, like the kind you see in wild west movies. Reign wouldn't be surprised if a giant tumble weed rolled past her.

Despite every instinct in her body that begged her to turn around, she kept walking. She walked through the courtyard, where all the set ups, all the evidence of a living community had been destroyed. Scenes from the fight replayed in her mind as she stood in the very spot along the torn down fence where she had fired bullets at the Governor. At the very thought of him her eyes wondered over to a still body in the field, a body standing out from all the rest.

Taking out various walkers on her trip down, Reign made it to the field and to the body where her suspicion was confirmed true. It was the Governor's dead body.

He laid there with a sword wound in his chest, complete with a bullet wound in his head. Just watching him lay there so still, so peacefully made Reign want to vomit. He got what he deserved though. He got the pain he was destined for. But it wasn't enough to satisfy Reign. It wasn't enough to bring her home back, to bring her family back, to bring Hershel back. Nothing could ever go back to the way it was, all because of one goddamn person.

Reign dropped her bag, letting Gizmo go as she stood above the Governor, raising her sword. She looked at the clean blade, too clean for her liking. She wanted it to be covered with blood, not just any blood, but his blood. So she raised her sword and brought it down with such force that she sliced his head off with one chop, but it wasn't enough. She kept cutting him, whipping him with her sword, ignoring the agonizing pain throbbing through her wounded shoulder. She directed the pain to the energy she used to turn his face into an unrecognizable mess, turning it into nothing but a giant pile of red.

"FUCK YOU!" she yelled as she raised her sword. "SCREW YOU!" she screamed into the early morning.

She threw her sword down before collapsing on the ground, her eyes turning into broken faucets that didn't appear to have a knob. She cried, letting it all out while no one was around. She didn't want to be alone again, but that's what usually happened to Reign Boyd. She always ended up alone.

About an hour passed and she found herself still sitting there, her knees pressed to her chest as she stared at the Governor's lifeless body. Her little episode had offered her a little bit of release, but it wasn't enough.

She wandered back up into the prison, entering its halls, assessing the damage. Some parts were still livable, but it would be like living in a cemetery, the stories and memories smacking you in the face every time you woke up in the morning. Deciding Damon was right, she knew she had to get the hell out of there, but voices in the distance told her otherwise.

She immediate scooped Gizmo up in her hands, placing him in her backpack. She went to turn but the voices seemed to be echoing off the walls, making it impossible to pin point the location of where these people were. She didn't want another encounter again, and she especially didn't want another gunshot wound. The one she had was already a bitch, and hadn't even healed yet.

She heard footsteps in the distance, and turned to run but it was too late to make an escape as two dark figures turned down the hallway. With no other way out she threw herself into one of the cells, diving onto the floor hoping she hadn't been seen. She pulled out her sword and held it closely just in case. She petted Gizmo's head from her backpack to keep him quiet, praying he wouldn't make a sound. Fortunately for Reign, he was pretty good that way. He was use to the apocalypse.

The footsteps came closer, so Reign hid under the bunk bed despite how cliché it was. Everyone knew hiding under beds didn't do you any good. But then again, Reign was never good at hide-n-go seek.

She closed her eyes as the footsteps got closer, praying that they would keep walking, but to her luck they stopped just outside her cell.

"Dude, I swear I saw someone go in here, and it reeks of blood," one man said.

"Dude, the whole place smells like blood. Let's just hope Chad wasn't here when this place when down," the other said.

The mention of Chad made Reign's blood run cold. If they knew Chad, they were more than likely to be vampires. If they were vampires, she didn't stand a chance from hiding from them. They could practically hear her breath, smell the fear off her body and before she knew it they had a hold of her. They yanked her by her feet from under the bed, throwing her with ease against the wall.

"Dude, it's a girl," the one said.

"Dude, it's a human," the other one said, baring his fangs.

"Dude, if you say dude one more time, I'll cut your fucking head off," Reign growled, slicing her sword through one of their arms, taking them off guard as they bickered. This startled them, offering Reign an escape. She gladly took it, running down the hallway and into the courtyard looking for a place to run or hide with her backpack still secured on her.

Before she could find one however, the two vampires had found her. They stood a while back, slowly approaching her in a mocking way.

"You're so dead," the one said, licking his lips and baring his fangs.

"Maybe, but so is Chad," Reign snickered, knowing it would anger them. She threw her sword, slicing the one in the neck while the other sped up to her, grabbing her by her throat.

Her throat was already tender from when she was choked yesterday, making it all the more painful. "I'm sorry, but I kinda need blood, and you're the only fresh body around so, goodbye," the vampire said, moving to bare his fangs into her neck when suddenly his whole body went still, grey veins appearing on his skin, consuming him until he went lifeless.

Reign pushed him to the ground, revealing Damon behind him with a wooden stake in his hand.

"Why the hell are you here? I don't need your help!" Reign yelled in anger.

"Sure you didn't," he rolled his eyes, sprinting to the other limp vampire and stabbing him in the heart with the stake.

Reign walked up to the vampire and grabbed the sword from his throat, cleaning the blade with her handkerchief. "I don't want you here," she snapped.

"Yeah, well that makes two of us," Damon growled. Hours earlier as he walked by himself in the forest, the guilt of letting Reign go had caught up to him, and he knew Bonnie would never forgive him if he let her die.

"Why are you here?" she asked.

"I thought you might be right. Thought maybe everyone would gather back here, but I guess they aren't as stupid as you," he remarked, a smirk on his face.

"You're a real dick," she growled, turning around. To her surprise, Damon followed her.

"How would you know? Have you ever seen one before?" he mocked.

"You disgust me. And you don't know shit about me, who I am or where I'm from." She snapped, spinning around to face him.

"I don't really care to know you," he replied grimly with a smirk.

"Then why are you here?" she asked again.

Damon sighed and ran a hand through his raven black hair. "I already told you. I couldn't find anyone else and I thought they'd be here," he said, but Reign had a feeling he was lying.

"Bullshit. Why are you still here? They're clearly not here, so there's no reason for you to stay," she hissed.

"Very true, but I'm a vampire, and vampires need blood, and you have blood. Those two vampires wanted it, but I want it more," Damon said, catching Reign off guard.

"So that's why you helped me? So you could have my blood all to yourself?" she snapped.

Damon shrugged, and took a step closer to Reign, but she reacted quickly, pulling out her sword and pointing it at Damon. "Stay away from me," she growled.

Damon smirked, and quickly grabbed her sword, throwing it to the ground before Reign could even blink. He then sped to Reign and stood in front of her, standing about a foot taller. She didn't know how to react, and her breath got caught in her throat from fear. "If you're gonna kill me, kill me," she finally said. There was a bit of desperation in her voice, signaling her defeat.

Damon didn't say anything, just glared into her blue eyes, not touching her. He didn't even bare his fangs. All she saw was the anger in his eyes as he studied her, trying to find a reason not to kill. Behind his icy blue eyes that shined with rage, she saw a flicker of sadness hidden deep inside, a feeling that Reign could relate all too well with.

"Do it!" she shouted in his face.

Damon sighed and backed up, shaking his head in anger. "I knew you wouldn't do it. If you killed me, and we found Bonnie, she would never talk to you again," Reign said, clueing into why the vampire was tolerating her.

"She won't talk to me again, because I'm never going to see her again! She's dead, my brother is dead! They're all dead! Don't you get it?" Damon yelled, anger taking control.

"He ruined the only home I had felt safe in, the only home where I saw a future in this world. He just came and took it away from me, and I couldn't stop it," Damon bellowed.

Defeated, Damon backed up and sat against the brick wall of the destroyed prison, holding his head in his hands as he broke down.

Reign gulped and walked to him, grabbing one of the glass bottles laying around and cutting her wrist, putting some of the blood in it, only filling about half an inch up. She then passed it to him, the smell of blood immediately forcing his head up.

"He ruined my home too," she whispered.

She slid the bottle over, looking straight ahead as he took it, both of them staring at the sun as it rose, not saying anything more. The silence spoke loud enough for them, and their minds were already harassing them with thoughts that would never make sense.

All they could do was sit, and that's what they did.

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[EDITED: 07/11/18]